Alumni Profiles

Read about some of the communication and culture undergraduates who have engaged in research and internships:

Colleen Burns, Class of 2011

As a communication and culture major and an education minor (Human Services Sequence), Colleen has enjoyed learning how her love of media can be used as a tool to serve others. This is especially apparent in her topic for her honors thesis: media violence and bullying in schools. Inspired by lived experiences, Colleen recognized that an important gap exists and needed to be filled between scholars of bullying and those who study media violence. Her thesis was designed as a project that would begin to fill that gap. Colleen approached her study from a media analysis standpoint, using a unique method combining quantitative and qualitative analysis of bullying incidents shown on popular programs for children aged 9-14 from five different television networks. One important result uncovered how the laugh tracks used in sitcoms often position an audience to support an incident of bullying. Ultimately, her thesis begins a dialogue about how bullying is represented on television.

Colleen will be working part-time at the Focus Alternative Learning Center in Canton, CT; assisting with expanding their social media, as well as working with clients as a Direct Care Staff member. In the future, she hopes to become a social media manager.

Marlene McManus, Class of 2010

Marlene chose the communication and culture major because of its interdisciplinary focus. With a concentration in the Global Path of the major, she also completed requirements for the concentration in Clark's Asian Studies program. Her interest in languages started in high school when she studied Latin and French. At Clark she continued her French studies, and then ventured into learning Chinese. She completed 5 semesters of Chinese and spent December 2008-June 2009 in Beijing. For a senior year directed study, she is currently conducting a comparative film analysis of Chinese and American films depicting the Second Sino-Japanese War. After graduation, Marlene plans to attend law school with the goal of a career in immigration law.

Jacob Nathan, Class of 2010

Jacob completed a double major in communication and culture and in music. With a concentration in the Media Path, Jacob found the major to be a great experience because it helped him contextualize the role of music in society. He has always loved music, and plays drums and electronic music. Out of class, Jacob has worked at the radio station and in student activities where he books touring acts that come to Clark. In his senior year, Jacob completed an honors thesis titled The Mediation and Meditation of Noise Music. To round out his education, he studied Japanese and is now a student in the Masters program in Professional Communication here at Clark. Long term interests are to work in the music industry. In the meantime, Jacob continues to be an avid Red Sox fan!